Evaluate my $2000 i7 gaming rig

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: one week

BUDGET RANGE: approx. US$2000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: gaming, music, movies, internets

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard and mouse

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg

PARTS PREFERENCES: i7 for processor, ATI video cards

OVERCLOCKING: yes

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: yes

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200

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Here's what I have so far, feel free to suggest alternatives.

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115202 )

Mobo: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131365 )

RAM: OCZ XMP Ready Series 6GB (3 x 2GB)
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227388 )

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129043 )

PSU: Antec TPQ-850 850W Continuous Power ATX12V / EPS12V
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371009 )

GPU: 2x SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB in Crossfire
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102801 )

HDD1: for OS/apps Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136322 )

HDD2: for storage Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136284 )

Monitor: SAMSUNG 2433BW High Glossy Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824001309 )

DVDRW: LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136152 )


Miscellaneous parts:

2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835129016 to fill out the last two fan slots in the case

CPU cooling: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233029

Thermal compound: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835100007


Totals to just over US$2000. I've got a few combos lined up in my newegg cart, so don't worry about those.

So how does all this work? Generally I'm looking for a system that will pretty much demolish current games at great resolutions.

My major concerns at this point are whether both of those video cards will fit in Crossfire, and also whether the CPU cooler will fit in the case with the side fan. So far it seems like both are not issues according to what I've been reading, but if anyone else has stories or insights I would appreciate it.

Is there not a really noticeable difference between 10k rpm and 7.2k rpm HDDs? A friend of mine told me it was a pretty good idea, but if it's BS then I'd go a cheaper route.

Problem with that cooler is that I've been reading it doesn't fit very well in the Antec 1200, some users have said they need to mod the fans on the case to get it to fit. I would go with it, but I'm not comfortable cutting up case fans just to fit in a cooler.

Thanks for the tip on the HDD, raid def. looks the way to go if that's the case.

It has to do with the placement of the side fan in the 1200, I think. It might be different for different mobos, as well. In any case the black knight seems to work very well and is shorter and cheaper.

I switched to the following:

CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139009 )

2x Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA in RAID 0
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136319 )

2x SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890 1GB in Crossfire
( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102830 )

switch the two WDC black 640's to Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB's since they are faster then VRaptor's and you get more space for a bit more.

also a 4870 X2 might be a better idea than 2 4890's as they are cheaper and won't show a major drop in performance, especially if you overclock it.

I decided against the 4870 X2 because of the overheating horror stories I've been hearing all over the place, plus the fact that newegg apparently has a great combo deal with a factory overclocked version of the 4890 that seems to have less issues.

^ nope, the samsung F1's have 32MB of cache and run at a read rate of 93MB/s average and 123MB/s max.

i think newegg only stock the 16mb versions, or the fact that its either a wrong description or they are dam hard to find on the site lol. but they do, do a 32mb look on tomshardware charts. either choice wont be a bad 1 so your in a win win situation (provided you can get ur hands on the 32mb version)

Any opinion on the new Seagate 7200.12 series? Seems to be highly rated and performs well on the benchmarks on this site.

I know the 7200.11 series had major driver issues, so mainly I'm curious as to whether those have been resolved in the newer versions. I'm actually partial to WD as well, so if people don't know yet I'll probably still go with the 2x 640GB caviar blacks.

At this point my main motivation for going ATI is that I've heard great things about their cards in Crossfire, and I've been running an 8800 GTS for a couple of years that has been stable but has also seen some stuttering problems off and on.

Excellent build I would say but if you already spend that amount of money, i would get SOLID STATE drive as your boot/system drive (not storage), get like a 128gb solid state for all your applications, because it will blow away any velici... raptor hard drive with a tiny 10k rpm in terms of speed. For all storage and multimedia just get a normal hard drive. And make absolutely sure that all you hard drives are connect through SATA NOT USB, SATA is far far far faster then USB and will help make transfer speeds between hard drives lightning fast. I am come on your 10k rpm can transfer what...250mb/s like a turtle, some good solid states can get over a 1gb/s and some up to 3gb/s so think about it.